NCAA Men's Lacrosse Week #4 Recap

March 5, 2013

This week marked the fourth full slate of NCAA lacrosse games with several of our 2013 Collegiate Draftees taking the field with their respective teams. The Ohio Machine currently holds the rights to the players named in bold below. No NCAA player has made any commitment (express or implied) to play in Major League Lacrosse following graduation.

#9 Colgate vs. #5 Cornell (3-19)

Colgate received its first loss of the season to Cornell, 19-3, this past Saturday. Cornell dominated the game between these two Top 10 teams, making it 11-0 well into the second quarter before Colgate got on the board with a goal from sophomore Connor Braddish. Coming out from halftime, Matt Clarkson put another point up for Colgate with an assist from Peter Baum (1st Overall) but was answered by six more Cornell goals to make it 17-2. Ryan Walsh scored the third and final goal for Colgate before Cornell closed out the game with two more goals for a final score of 19-3. With his sixth assist of 2013, Baum has tallied a point in 22 consecutive games.

#13 Ohio State vs. #8 Penn State (10-9)

Ohio State has opened up its season 4-0 with its latest win 10-9 over Penn State in overtime. With sophomores Jesse King and Turner Evans and senior Logan Schuss (11th Overall) leading the way for the Buckeyes, Ohio State came back from a six-goal deficit in the second quarter to a forced-overtime win. At the end of the first quarter, the two teams were even at two but Penn State quickly pulled away with six-unanswered goals, heading into halftime leading 8-2. But the Buckeyes answered back forcefully in the third with six goals of their own to make it 8-all and took the lead in the fourth from Schuss’ second goal of the game. Penn State tied the game with a goal from Shane Sturgis with only four minutes left in the quarter. King, who tallied three goals and two assists, gave Ohio State the game-winning goal in overtime to make the Buckeyes undefeated, only the second time in school history the Buckeyes have had a 4-0 start to a season. Evans collected four points from three goals and one assist followed by Schuss with three points from two goals and one assist. Schuss is currently first on the team with 12 goals and 18 points, as well as continued his point streak to 49 games. Dominique Alexander (33rd Overall) and Kevin Mack (57th Overall) both saw playing time and collected one and two groundballs, respectively.

#11 UNC vs. #2 Notre Dame (9-10)

Even with the help of two goals from senior Marcus Holman (12th Overall), UNC was unable to add another win to its record after losing 10-9 to Notre Dame in the third overtime. The Irish started out the game on the board first with two goals from Jack Near and Conor Doyle but was answered two minutes later with a goal from UNC’s Jimmy Bitter. At the end of the first, Notre Dame led 3-2 but UNC took the lead in the second with goals from Steve Pontrello and Holman. Notre Dame didn’t stay down and, after goals from Jim Marlatt and Matt Kavanagh, went into the half leading 5-4. The Tar Heels came out into the second half strong with four-unanswered goals to make the game 8-5 but Notre Dame snuck in one goal with 30 seconds left in the third by Sean Rogers to cut UNC’s lead to 8-6. UNC scored its last goal of the game in the fourth before Notre Dame scored three-unanswered goals to force three overtimes and eventually win 10-9 with a goal from Kavanagh in the third overtime.

#10 Denver vs. #15 UPenn (15-12)

Denver now has three consecutive wins after a 15-12 game over University of Pennsylvania. The Pioneers found themselves down 5-2 in the first but closed the deficit with sophomore Wes Berg’s first of two hat tricks in less than one minute left in the quarter. Denver followed up with three more goals from Jeremy Noble and Berg to take the lead at 8-5 in the second. The Pioneers and Quakers traded a pair of goals each before heading into the locker room for halftime with Denver leading 10-7. Denver dominated the third quarter with three more goals from Noble, Eric Law and Eric Adamson to end the third quarter 13-8. UPenn rallied in the fourth scoring four goals by Chris Hupfeldt, Ryan Parietti, Drew Belinsky and Zack Losco but couldn’t overcome Denver who ended the game with one more goal from Berg to make the final score 15-12. Berg tallied a career-high seven goals against the Quakers to tie the Pioneers’ single-game record and currently leads Denver with 18 goals. Denver’s Chase Carraro (13th Overall) has missed the past two games due to injury.

#3 Lynchburg vs. #5 Cabrini (11-9)

Top defender Joe Lisicky (41st Overall) returned to action for the first time this season after a preseason injury left him sidelined for the first two games of 2013 and helped lead Lynchburg to an 11-9 win over Cabrini. Cabrini was the first on the board but was quickly left behind when Lynchburg scored six goals in the first quarter to lead 6-2. Cabrini soon rallied in the second with five goals of its own but Lynchburg’s Vin Curran led the Hornets into halftime with a 9-7 lead after finishing his hat trick. During the second half, Lynchburg did not relinquish control over the lead. With both teams trading goals during the third and fourth, Lynchburg closed out the game at 11-9. In his first start of the season, Lisicky tallied two groundballs and one caused turnover.

#7 UMass vs. Brown (8-9)

University of Massachusetts marked its first regular season loss since 2011 with a 9-8 overtime defeat to Brown University. UMass and Brown traded goals throughout the first half but Brown went into the half leading 3-2 after a goal from Daniel Mellynchuk right before the break. UMass started the second half strong with four goals in the third quarter from Grant Whiteway, Andrew Sokol, Joe Valvello and Connor Mooney versus Brown’s one for a 6-4 Minutemen lead. With seven minutes left in the fourth, UMass scored its last goal of the game by Whiteway to hold its lead at 8-5 but Brown rallied with a hat trick from Kylor Bellistri to force overtime where Mellynchuk scored the winning goal with 2:44 left. Brown outshot UMass 46-30 but the Minutemen edged passed in groundballs, 30-18. Senior Colin Fleming (49th Overall) did not see any action in this game.